MA International Studies

This is foundational course highlights the various approaches and practices to international/global peace and security. It focuses on major conflicts and sources of insecurities since World War II, how these were internationalized / globalized through policies and ideologies, and what the contending responses were from both state and non-state actors.

This course introduces students to the basic concepts, processes, structures, and dynamics of shifting global governance complex, and how it connects with the struggles for democratization and claims to rights by social movements in an emerging global civil society. Special attention will be given to the UN, WTO and other emerging international and regional economic and political arrangements.

This course examines the linkages of migration and development in the context of globalization processes. It addresses questions such as: What are the discourses on development and migration? and Who defines the parameters of these debates and who benefits from migration? The course is handled by the Migration Studies Department.

This course examines how trade, investment, and financial regimes emerge and define the range of opportunities and vulnerabilities experienced by states and societies whose development has traditionally been characterized by North-South divide. It also introduces emerging institutions and supranational arrangements that seek to wield global governance and order, and the dynamics, processes and outcomes that collide with national sovereignty, cultures, ideologies and identities.

The major course aims to understand old and new regionalisms that bind nation-states to look for solutions to shared problems by reviewing key conceptual approaches toward regional integration and mapping out significant state and non-state processes and actors that manifest or advance regional processes. It encourages interest in how regionalisms affect inequities and imbalances in power relations across states and within states by exploring the possibilities (and limitations) various regional integration schemes offer for democratizing power in the age of globalization..

This elective course covers the various gender approaches, strategies, tools and instruments in development. Special emphasis is given on practices and experiences in developing countries and how these have informed current issues and debates in the field of gender and development studies.

The elective seminar course undertakes an in-depth analysis of theoretical discourses and major issues in international trade and finance. It critically engages contending discourses in international trade and finance – particularly those that relate to trade in goods and services and international capital flows – as they interface with development policy and practice in the developing world.

This elective course gives and overview of the various approaches to the study of leadership, and focuses on perspectives, values and strategies on transformative leadership and beyond. It examines issues that leaders must face exercising leadership amidst competing interests and power imbalances in a globalized world of heightened uncertainties and risks.

The special program held every summer of the school year aims to provide an overview of international law, norms, standards and institutional mechanisms and processes comprising an International Women’s Rights regime. The program is handled by the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI) under special arrangement with the International Studies Department.

This course offers an intensive, systematic, practical way of acquiring knowledge and skills for a candidate intending to take the Foreign Service Officer’s Examination. It orients the candidate on the nature, special requirements; and techniques in handling the written and oral communication examinations of the FSOE.